Luna seeks subpoena of uncooperative witness on centennial matter

San Diego City Auditor Eduardo Luna is seeking to subpoena the former head of the nonprofit group that spent nearly $3 million in public funds planning a Balboa Park centennial party that never got off the ground.

In a memo on Friday, Luna sought the subpoena power from the City Council’s audit committee, which oversees his work. He cited “the refusal of a key witness to cooperate with our investigation” of the centennial planning.

The memo did not identify the official, writing only, “The witness involved was a principal executive of the organization receiving city funds.”

U-T Watchdog has confirmed that the executive in question is Julie Dubick, former head of Balboa Park Celebration Inc. and former chief of staff to then-Mayor Jerry Sanders.

Dubick did not respond to messages on Friday. She resigned from her $15,000-a-month post in February after the Watchdog reported the nonprofit group had little to show for its efforts and had misled funders about progress made.

A spokesman for Councilman Scott Sherman, chairman of the audit committee, said the issue will not be considered at the Monday meeting because it was submitted too late to comply with open-meeting laws. He declined to say whether the matter would be put on a future agenda.

“As to the question regarding subpoena power, we just received this memo about two hours ago and will be referring it to the City Attorney’s Office for an opinion,” the spokesman wrote.

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Gerry Braun is another former Sanders aide and served as the charity’s spokesman before replacing Dubick as head of the agency during its dissolution.

In a statement Friday, he said, “BPCI has cooperated fully with the audit, asked its former contractors to do the same and is unaware of the situation you describe.”

Balboa Park Celebration Inc. was set up as a nonprofit in 2011 by city officials when both Dubick and Braun served in the Mayor’s Office.

The organization received millions of dollars in public funding to promote a 100-year remembrance of the Panama-California Exposition, an international attraction that lured millions of people to the young city and is widely credited for putting San Diego on the world map.

The centennial was supposed to present events every day of 2015, and once again lure millions of tourists to the region.

Despite the millions of dollars of spending, the organization went through four different executives and never attracted the corporate sponsorships that were key to pulling off the planned extravaganza.

Faced with mounting criticism and dwindling revenue, the board of directors in March decided to dissolve the organization.

The Audit Committee later directed Luna to review all contracts and spending approved by the Balboa Park Celebration board of directors.

The memo from Luna to Sherman raises another issue unrelated to the request to discuss Dubick’s failure to cooperate with the audit.

“A legal question has arisen between the Office of the City Auditor and City Attorney as to whether San Diego voters granted the City Auditor authority to subpoena non-cooperating persons upon the adoption of City Charter section 39.2,” the memo states.

Luna said the charter grants him that authority while investigating potential claims of financial fraud, waste or impropriety, and cited an appellate court case to bolster his position.

City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said the lawyers who drafted Section 39.2 did not provide for subpoena power, so voters did not authorize the auditor to issue subpoenas.

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Rather, they awarded him the authority to “summon” certain people to provide information, Goldsmith said.

“Under this process, the auditor would issue the summon,” Goldsmith said. “If it is violated, our office would seek a court order. Then, violation of that court order would be a contempt. So in effect the difference is a two-step process rather than self-executing.”

San Diego voters approved the creation of an independent city auditor following a pension crisis a decade ago that pushed the city to the brink of bankruptcy.

The relevant section of the city charter section states: “The City Auditor may investigate any material claim of financial fraud, waste or impropriety within any City Department and for that purpose may summon any officer, agent or employee of the City, any claimant or other person, and examine him or her upon oath or affirmation relative thereto.”